The world is full of productivity gurus, but one of the most famous is arguably David Allen, who developed the Getting Things Done (GTD) methodology. 

Allen initially described the methodology in a book titled Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity.  In brief, GTD is a personal productivity methodology that redefines how you approach your life and work. On a high-level, It consists of five basic steps, which are:

1. Capture – collect what has your attention

2. Clarify – process what it means

3. Organize – put it where it belongs

4. Reflect – review frequently

5. Engage – simply do

Based on Allen’s GTD methodology, I’ve developed my own productivity system, which has served me well for the past 5 years. It contains elements from all five steps mentioned above, but I’ve found that getting the first step right, i.e. capturing everything that pops up in your mind systematically and placing them into a centralized “inbox”, is key to everything.

What are things you should capture? Well, basically anything that catches your attention. It could be to-do’s, ideas, recurring tasks, requests – whatever you don’t want to forget. 

An inbox, in this context, means any predefined location where you collect all the stuff that comes your way, until you have time to process it. 

Initially I experimented with using my main email inbox also as my GTD inbox, but pretty quickly I discovered that this resulted in confusion and chaos. Instead, I set up my GTD inbox in Evernote, where it resided for many years. 

Recently, however, I moved over my GTD inbox to Google Keep, but I still use Evernote for managing and organizing the remaining steps in my GTD process, and for keeping track of a lot of things in general. 

The reason for starting to use Google Keep was that it integrates perfectly with the Google ecosystem, including Google Home, which means that I can add stuff to my inbox just by talking to the Google Assistant wherever I am. It could be when I’m lying in bed trying to fall asleep, when I’m cooking food, when I’m walking outside, or when I’m sitting in the sauna. 

Being able to offload things immediately to the inbox whenever and wherever I am is a powerful feature of the entire system. Not only does it ensure that the subsequent steps in the process work, but it’s also crucial for reducing stress and finding peace of mind.

To conclude, whichever GTD methodology you choose to adopt, my recommendation is that you start by spending enough time developing an inbox that suits your lifestyle, goals, and habits. Also, if you haven’t tested Google Keep before, you might want to check it out too.